The present volume is the last in a series of publications based on the results of the research project carried out by the Center for Economic and Socio-Political Studies and is devoted to the changes in the political life and institutions of the West, that have been brought about by globalization and the development of information society. Previous publications include “New Trends in the Home Policy of the Developed Countries” (M., IMEMO, 2005) and “Politics in the West: Contents, Actors and Institutional Problems” (M., IMEMO, 2006). The authors focus on a new correlation between home and foreign policies, problems arising from the evolution of the representative democracy system, changes in the relations between the State, business and civil society, as well as on the emergence of a mass European identity. An analysis of the character of the internal contradictions that have emerged in the course of the development of the West, as well as of the prospects for their smoothing over, is presented in the concluding chapter.